Apparently the word "fistful" is unacceptable for blog titles...this is the only site I know of that autocensors that strictly...
I finally sat down and watched The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters Monday night. Maybe I built it up too high, but I was disappointed. Here are a few thoughts (if you haven't seen it, you may want to skip this...there could be some SPOILERS in here):
-Billy Mitchell didn't come across as badly as I expected. Maybe I had him pegged for an arrogant pinhead from the get-go, but the only things that hurt my opinion of him was the fact that he wouldn't play Steve Wiebe straight up and that his wife had NEVER seen him play a game. I already wasn't impressed with Sauceboy, so I don't think he got beaten up as badly as he says he did.
-One thing that amazed me was the cult of personality that Mitchell had around him. Between Walter Day, Robert Mruczek, Steve Sanders, and Brian Kuh, Mitchell had an army of dorks who would probably kill if he said so. Come to think of it, Mruczek did kind of look like Son of Sam serial killer David Berkowitz...
-The funniest part of the whole movie was watching Brian Kuh's face as he started to realize that he would not be the first player to reach the Donkey Kong kill screen at that particular Funspot. At one point, I was sure he was going to cry. He was squeezed so tight that I'm sure you could have stuck a lump of coal between his buttcheeks and he would have turned it into a diamond.
-Twin Galaxies lost ALL credibility. Maybe it was journalistic license, but it would appear that you're eligible for a video game world record as long as you're not messing with one of Billy Mitchell's records. Sure, they gave Wiebe the record later on, but I'm guessing it's only because they knew it was being filmed. I also firmly belive that not only is Walter Day a con man, but he's a lunatic as well. Watch the Walter Day profile in the special features...you'll see what I mean.
-Roy "Mr. Awesome" Schildt is a creepy, creepy man.
-And finally, my opinion of Wiebe fluctuated throughout the film. I started out rooting for the guy. He was down on his luck and I really wanted to see him succeed. He lost me when he literally started crying about not getting the record. While he definitely got screwed, I could think of a million other things to cry about...like not having a job to help pay his family's bills. But later on, as the conspiracy against him becomes much clearer, you start to find yourself in his corner again. And his wife is a saint. There aren't too many women that would put up with that level of obsession...I know of two (his wife and mine).
Kong is definitely worth a watch, even if it wasn't as great as it was cracked up to be.
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I'm (at least for a little bit) going to bring back my "Jolly Roger's Top Five" series. It has only one entry right now, and that's over two years old! I've been temporarily inspired by clownofpoetry's current blog series. Look for my Top Five NES Games soon.